Pelvicachromis taeniatus Assistance Request

Dear fellow cichlid enthusiasts,
It has been nearly 23 years since Loiselle & Castro published their paper,
"The Status of Pelvicachromis kribensis (Boulenger 1911), in the "Buntbarsche
Bulletin" (BB#81, Dec. 1980). In their paper, Loiselle and Castro suggest
that Pelvicachromis taeniatus is a species complex consisting of three
distinct species. Since 1980, many more P. taeniatus color morphs have been
collected and embraced by hobbyists both in Europe and the US, i.e., Wouri,
Ndonga, Bandewouri, Bipindi, Nyete, etc. These new discoveries, in my
opinion, seem to support Loiselle and Castro's earlier purported (proposed)
assertion.
Ted Judy, a biology teacher and hobbyist friend, and I are in the process of
accumulating data concerning Pelvicachromis taeniatus and ask you for your
kind assistance, please.
Our interest concerns an evolutionary biology question. We are attempting to
determine if the Pelvicachromis taeniatus color morphs constitute a clinal
relationship. According to Ted, "a 'cline' is a sequence of variations that
appear in different geographic forms over a long distance. Two forms that are
in adjacent areas, and thus might have some occasional genetic drift between
them, will have features that share a lot in common. The farther apart two
forms are, the less likely it is that their gene pools will overlap, so there
are fewer features that they share."
Ted further explains that we are "collecting data to see if a cline can be
seen in the number of caudal and dorsal ocelli this species has. The Nigerian
forms are very spotted, while many of the southern Camaroonian forms are not
heavily spotted at all."
To this end, we ask you for some information about your fish. If you have any
of the Pelvicachromis taeniatus forms, please furnish as much of the
following information as possible. Please limit your data to fish that are
mature and of a reproductive age. It would not be beneficial to provide data
for a bunch of fry or sub adults. If you do not own the fish, but have
permission from the person who does to give us the requested data, please
include the name of the person so that we can avoid double counting fish.
Kindly furnish the following. We are including examples of responses for
clarity:
Type: Pel. taen. 'lobe'
Generation: wild, F1, F2, etc.
Origin: Self collected, importer/distributor, retailer, hobbyist, club
trade/auction
Sex: male or female
Dorsal ocelli: the number of spots in the soft dorsal fin rays*
Caudal ocelli: the number of spots in the caudal fin*
*A partial spot, as on the edge of the dorsal or caudal fin, counts as one
(1).
Ted explains that is our "goal is to create a map of the geographic range of
the P. taeniatus types and see if there is a clinal pattern between the
northern Nigerian populations and the southern Camaroonian populations."
Thank you all very much for your valued assistance in this well intentioned
project.
All the best,
Randall Kohn and Ted Judy
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